Wilderness crash kills ex-senator

Former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), an icon in Alaskan politics and a giant in Senate history, was killed in an airplane crash in a remote part of southwestern Alaska Monday night.

Sean O’Keefe, the former NASA administrator who was with Stevens on the flight, was injured in the crash but has survived, according to several sources.

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Stevens was headed on a fishing trip in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska when the small plane went down in inclement weather. A family spokesman, Mitch Rose, confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday afternoon that Stevens was among the fatalities in a crash that took the lives of five of the nine people on board.

The Federal Aviation Administration said there were at least nine people on board the flight, with five deaths and two serious injuries. Alaska state police identified the victims as Stevens; pilot Theron "Terry" Smith, 62, of Eagle River, Alaska; William "Bill" Phillips, Sr., a former Stevens aide and Washington lobbyist; Dana Tindall, 48, of Anchorage, Alaska, and her daughter Corey, 16, according to the AP.

Medical personnel took a helicopter into the crash site to rescue survivors, but the remote location and poor weather conditions made access difficult.

Other passengers on the flight included O’Keefe and his son, Jim Morhard, a one-time Stevens’ aide turned lobbyist; and Phillips's son.

O’Keefe is now chief executive of EADS North America, and his participation in what is being described as an annual fishing trips to a difficult-to-reach region of southwest Alaska was confirmed by company spokesman Guy Hicks.

O’Keefe and his son reportedly survived the crash although he may have suffered serious injuries, according to sources. There were some reports that the former NASA boss had perished, but these reports were later retracted.

Major General Thomas Katkus, who is overseeing the rescue and recovery operations, said there were four survivors from the accident, although he refused to disclose their names during a Tuesday press conference in Alaska.

Katkus said the plane crash took place at roughly 7:30 p.m. Alaska time on Monday. Rescue crews were diverted from another operation involving a different plane crash to the site, a mountainside region 17 miles north of Dillingham, Alaska.